Woodcock Estates faces bankruptcy

Woodcock Estates Inc., which recently closed its Mary McClellan Guest Home for Adults and which owns two more homes in Schuylerville and Cambridge, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

“It is in the best interest of this corporation to file,” Woodcock said in a bankruptcy statement last week. The Cambridge-based company had $2.7 million in assets and $1.2 million in liabilities.

The biggest creditors include Gaffken & Barringer Fund LLC of Monticello, which claims $147,867; and The Community Preservation Corp. of New York City, which claims $854,000.

Woodcock filed one day before the Preservation Corp. was to foreclose on all three properties.

The Woodcocks borrowed about $2.5 million two years ago. Due to missed payments, that sum is now up to $3.4 million, acording to Community Preservation.

“Now everything’s in limbo” because of the bankruptcy, said Gerald Fitzgerald, a mortgage officer at Community Preservation Corp.’s Albany office.

In Late January, the state Department of Health stepped in to force Woodcock Estates to keep the Mary McClellan home open after the owner told the state it would have to close immediately due to lack of money for heat. The facility stayed open for another week until all residents were placed elsewhere.

The former Mary McClellan Hospital was acquired by Woodcock two years earlier, which reopened the nursing home as an adult home but was never able to recover from the debt created by taking over the hospital.

All three businesses faced foreclosure last year after expenses rose suddenly, mostly due to rising energy costs.

And in November, Isabell Woodcock suffered an even bigger hit when her husband and business partner, Allyn Sr., died after an illness. He was 77 years old.